Davor pointed his petroleum exhaust device at the warehouse and looked the reading. He pointed it away from the warehouse and again checked the reading. "Something fish is going on."
Horacio corrected him, "The expression is something fishy is going on."
"Yes, fishes. The reading does not change from the warehouse to the street. There should be a high reading from the warehouse if the Jumping Jack is using his device with such vigor."
"Can your device detect the petroleum emissions through the brick and mortar of the building?"
Davor slowly turned his gaze upon Horacio, "I think I know my own invention. If I say it should be reading higher toward the warehouse, then it should be reading higher."
The bouncing around inside the building ceased and the lights dimmed to black. Horacio sighed, "We are going to have to go inside. I think that maybe this was a show for our benefit."
Davor agreed. He stowed away his detection device and Horacio directed them both to the locked door adjoining the back alleyway. Horacio jiggled the door handle. "It's locked."
Davor reached into his inside coat pocket. "I have just the thing." He produced a long, screwdriver looking contraption with a spiked hook on the end. He carefully inserted the tip into the door lock, pressed a button on the handle and held on to it with both hands when it began to try to buck out of his grasp.
"Not very quiet, is it. Will it leave anything left of the door lock? I am all in for breaking and entering but us leaving signs of a forced entry I have a problem with."
"It will be fine. This lock is made of steel. My mechanical lockpick will break before it does." The lockpick stopped and Davor pulled it from the lock. "Voila! He twisted the knob and the door opened freely.
"Good work. You really must show me more of your inventions." Horacio said.
Davor bucked up at the words, "I would be honored to show you more of my work." He paused for a moment. "You know, you have never talked to me about what it is you do." His accent seemed a bit more pronounced than usual.
"Are you asking?"
"Aye, I would like to know."
"I write stories and books. Manly for periodicals and magazines."
"Interesting. What do you write?"
"Well, I write down my adventures. This one for example."
"I shall be in one of your stories then?"
"Naturally, you are involved. Why would I leave you out?"
"All I would ask is that you be careful writing about my inventions. Not all of them have patents and fewer still are free from prying eyes who died to get my work."
"You mean they are dying to get your work."
"Yes, died."
"I really must help you with idioms and sayings. I don't think you quite have the knack for them quite yet."
Once inside the warehouse, the first thing Horacio noticed was a thick layer of dust in the floor devoid of any kind of footprints. The dust was completely undisturbed. "Look at the dust on the floor. No one has been in here for quite some time. It is as I expected."
"Here." Davor handed Horacio a long tube with a flared end. "Press the button on top. It's a flashlight."
"I have heard of these." Horacio said. "Handy to have!"
"They have been around for over twenty years. Conrad Hubert invented them in 1898. You're just now seeing one?"
"I have never had the use for one." Horacio said.
"How did you see to investigate before? Candlelight?"
"Yes, actually. Now, what do you make of the dust being undisturbed?"
"There must be some kind of motion picture projector in here." Davor said. "They're fascinating devices."
"A tin can with the cut out of Jumping Jack and a candle burning inside would work just as well. Someone could have spun the tin can and the projection on the walls would dance."
Davor looked disappointed, "I suppose you are right but that is old technology. I would think someone with this man's knowledge would have done better."
"Sorry to disappoint you." Horacio pointed to a corner where there was a large coffee can on a turntable still spinning. The light source had gone out.
Davor hurried to the turntable to examine it. He has this connected to an old pocket watch. Fascinating, I think he is using the pocket watch to make some kind of timing switch. This projector plays whenever the watch hand hit a certain time." He poked his fingers in the coffee can. There is an electric light. It appears to have burned out." The table clicked and shut off.
Horacio pointed the light around the projector until he came across a pair or footprints in the dust leading off to a back room. He pointed the light through the empty room to a door. The footprinted ended there. "Look at these."
Davor shined his light on the footprints. "Our culprit?"
"Maybe."
The two followed the trail to the door. Horacio put his ear up to it. "There is a lot of humming and hissing coming from behind this door."
"Let me hear." Davor said. He placed his ear to the door. "Yes, I hear it. It sounds like machinery. I'll get us in."
Horacio grabbed his arm, "Wait, is it safe? We were lured here with a ruse, remember."
"Only one way to find out." He took his mechanical lockpick and used it to get the door opened. Once the lock was free, Davor opened the door and the two cautiously stepping inside the room. They found themselves on a catwalk above a room full of machinery. The middle of the room had a hissing steam engine turning with giant pistons. Two huge tanks of water were on either side feeding the engine. "What is this place?"
Horacio marveled at the room, "Someplace someone wanted us to see. This machinery is extremely loud. How is it we only heard it by placing or ear on the door?"
Davor closed the door and examined the back of it. He rubbed it down and pinched his fingers together. "It is a coating. It feels like rubber but has a slightly oily texture to it. He has found a way to mask or absorb the sound."
"That may explain how Jumping Jack masks his noise."
The catwalk under them shivered and shook. Both men lost their footing and Horacio dropped his flashlight. The ceiling collapsed but did not fall on them. Instead, it bounced off a glass dome above them. The walls began to crumble and there was a drop. The whole room lurched and dropped making Horacio and Davor fly up into the air and abruptly drop back down to the catwalk. The whole building moved.
"What was to the east of this building?" Horacio asked.
"The river and then the ocean." Davor replied.
The walls crumbled away as they left them behind. Through the dome in the ceiling, Horacio could see the warehouse was still there but now with the entire eastern portion gone. The room splashed in the water and the steam engine began to turn, hiss, and blow out steam as it met resistance.
"We are in the engine room of a ship!" Davor said as he clung to the catwalk.
"What kind of engine room has a domed skylight?" Horacio asked.
"A submarine?" Davor pointed to the dome as it submerged under water.
The room stabilized and the ride became smooth again. Davor looked up at the dome, now under water, "Where does the steam go?"
"What?"
"The steam, where does it go? It has to blow out steam."
"Steam is water vapor, my good man, it just goes out into the river to become water again." A man wearing a nice suit with a waistcoat and tie came from around the corner. He also had a black mustache and dark, well-groomed hair.
"That's not how it works. What about the pollutants?" Davor asked. "The side products?"
The man shook his head, "There are none. It's just heated water. My engines do not work like you might think."
"Incredible, you built this?" Davor asked.
"I did." The man said looking up to admire his work. "This and much more."
"You brought us here on purpose." Horacio said.
"Yes, I drew you here as a moth to a flame. You followed my ruse perfectly."
"Why?" Horacio inquired.
"That is a matter we will discuss shortly. First, I think introductions are in order." He turned and held tightly onto the railing of the catwalk, "You may want to hold onto something. We are about to leave the mouth of the river."
The vessel shifted and again Horacio and Davor lost their footing. The vessel lurched and then headed out into open water. It dived deeper underwater now. The man smiled and marveled at the speed on the vessel, "My name is Sir Edmond Sterling, but you may know me as Jumping Jack. Who might you be?"
"I think you know who we are, sir." Horacio said.
Edmund looked at his pocket watch, "Let us move to a room where we can talk free of all this engine noise. Follow me."
Horacio and Davor followed Edmund to a door with a wheel lock. Edmund spinned the wheel and the door opened. They stepped through to a luxurious cabin. The place could have been a library with books lining the walls and smart tufted chairs and divans. Davor answered one of Horacio's pending questions when he walked over to one of the bookcases and fiddled around with the thing keeping the books firmly in place.
"Everything is secure. Sir Edmund said. "Even the chairs are attached to the floor. Now, if you don't mid. I would like to discuss why I brought you here, H.W. Wolveridge and Davor Andrej Nikolic. I warned the Rose and Raven Society to stay out of this, but they are persistent. I don't think they are telling you two everything. The society investigates things that go bump in the night…"
"And things that go bump in the day!" Horacio interrupted.
"Yes, well, I think they have sent you, their best agents, to obtain my technology."
"Ha, you don't know the society as well as you think." Horacio said. "They are not interested in your technology."
Sir Edmund pointed at Davor, "Why do you think they paired you two up together. Mr. Nikolic is a genius inventor. He could understand my work." He gestured to their surroundings.
Horacio ignored the melodramatic way Sir Edmund presented himself, "A steam powered submarine is not exactly the pentacle of technology." Horacio said.
Sir Edmund looked amused, "This engine is steam, for certain, but it's how the steam is produced that is the pentacle of technology, my good sir. You have not seen anything yet."
Horacio suddenly remembered they were headed out to sea, "Wait, where are you taking us?"
Sir Edmund gestured to the divans, "You might as well get comfortable. It is a long way to the island."
"What island?" Horacio asked suspiciously.
Sir Edmund touched a ring on his finger with his thumb and spin it around where Horacio could make out the twisted cross with the hideous skull, "We call it the island of Nekros. It serves as the headquarters of the Nekross Enclave, perhaps you have heard of us?"